Tag Archives: RIAA

On this blog, we always try to share free and open ways of using tools for productivity and education in the classroom. Much of what we do with the blog, with the tools, and eventually what you do in your class with students relies on an open internet and open tools. Congress, though, backed by the media moguls is trying to stop this freedom. Something they did not even create, they are trying to conform to their 20th Century business model.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) are Hollywood’s way to stop piracy of software, movies, and music. They could care less what that does about our freedoms, they just want to limit the ability to pirate their content. On the one hand, I cannot blame them. Piracy is real, does cost them money, but on the other hand, change your business model. Be like the other industries who had to think outside the box.

So Congress may finally be getting the message…as companies across the country have been weighing in, along with the general public. All amazing, considering the major media companies, NBC, Fox, etc, all have not been reporting on it, since it would potential help them. Fair and Balanced, indeed. Many major websites will go blank on January 18th in protest, possibly even including Wikipedia.

As educators, look at what you hope to do with children. We live in an age of focusing on content creation. What do they do with that content? How often does it involve mashups? How many times on this site alone did we look into Creative Commons, mashups, and things of that nature? Do we really want someone coming along changing those rules? Changing how we can embed video content on Moodle, blogs, Google Docs, etc? Now is the time…reflect on how you use the Internet, and let your congressmen know!

Ok, so the only news, it would appear, this week revolved around Apple. Even more so than usual. As always, it is sad when anyone passes too early. So for that, I am sad for Steve Jobs and his family.

Now, with that out of the way, I cannot get on the bandwagon with the Mac fanboys and fangirls. Think different, their old logo goes. More like don’t think at all, let us do it, and overpay us for our ideas. This is what gets me. Why would you ever want someone to give you their opinion or vision on how something should work? Why would you not want the freedom to do what you want to your device.

Then you see Apple sue sue sue. Next up is the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablets they are trying to say Samsung copied the design. Hmm, looks similar, but come on. Apple burns at me, since much like Disney, all their success comes on something free (Disney–public domain princess stories; Apple–Unix). Their success comes on the back of others, but they want to eliminate all the competition out there. Oh, and copy, yes COPY, eliminates of Android in their newest iOS release. That, I cannot get behind.

And the most hypocritical thing of all is their focus on education. They make grants, give away hardware, all to brainwash teachers (and I DO mean brainwash!) to get their hardware in schools. Ugg. I hate it. When we should focus on open source, open standards, and collaboration (STEM, anyone?), we fill schools with Mac products. Very, very frustrating. So while I am sad for the man, I cannot join in with my jeans and black turtleneck to support what he stood for and his opinions.

One of Google’s ongoing projects is their efforts to digitize the world. By that, I especially mean print media. Yes, all those books, whether in the public domain or elsewhere, Google wants to digitize, then allow ready access to these resources. As a techno-liberal, I LOVE seeing this data. So many real world things you can do with it in the classroom. In a generation where data rules, we need to make sure our students can interpret data and draw conclusions from it. Ngram Viewer provides a free and powerful way to do it. How? Here are some things I did with my seven year old…

our first search (in the image) was Hurricane vs Raleigh. You see the peek in the mid 1800s for Raleigh. I asked my daughter, what was happening at that point in history. Her response–was that the Civil War? So, proud Daddy, I knew she could tell me (although maybe not in as much detail as an older student) that more books were written using the word Raleigh due to the events in history at that time.

our second search–hockey vs baseball. Both started on the bottom, then started moving up in the early 1900s. Why, I asked my daughter again. “They weren’t invented yet, Daddy.” Awesome!

Just some basics, but think of how you could use this in a science class. Maybe at looking at diseases or advances in technology. Social studies with historical events. Literature. The list goes on and on. And a good primary source of information as well.

So, how much do you spend working with your students to check the validity of their internet research? As you see in the image, we definitely need to do this to help our students gather appropriate and reliable data. The Internet is a great source of information, but with all the reliable information comes many instances of false information. Research, with the introduction of the Internet, definitely has changed, and we want to make sure we allow our students to use it, but also to search through all the volume to construct their own meanings. How to do that? Point them to good, mainstream sources. You cannot usually go wrong with .gov government sites, the major news sites, and even Wikipedia. Yes, even Wikipedia. Every kid starts there, so why not start there but train them how to scan through it and use the LINKS at the bottom to go on to their cited sources. That will give them a basic understanding, then they can head to other sites for more data.

Another great strategy–actually going through sites and discussing them. What works better when study space? Nasa.gov or Joe’s Planet Site? Point out ways you can tell. Does the website look new or from the 1990s when web design began? Definitely a good start, but a lot of misinformed sites can look good. So look through the data. Are there videos? Photos? Documents? Use Google and see what is as the top of searches. Usually, although not always, the primary results in a Google search have been vetted by what else links there. If a lot of others link to a site, it is probably a reputable site. So taking these tips, you can definitely take your students to a higher level and make sure they find the reputable information they need.